Kuwait Airways offers tour to prove fleet is safe

Kuwait Airways has taken the unusual step of opening up its airport base for a media tour in an attempt to shutdown talk that the airline is unsafe.

An online video that appeared to show a Kuwait Airways aircraft in turbulence due to engine malfunction was recently uploaded to the internet.

The airline said it was filmed during a routine training course.

Last month a local newspaper reported that a Kuwait Airways passenger plane used blankets and bed sheets to block an air leak in an emergency door during a flight from Thailand to Kuwait, causing panic among passengers. No one was injured.

In 2012, a Kuwaiti lawyer called for the airline’s entire fleet to be suspended for safety reasons a day after the government grounded five aircraft.

“The malfunctions at Kuwait Airways planes pose a serious danger to passengers’ lives while the government has failed to take any measure,” lawyer Hawra Al Habeeb said at the time.

“Even the press sometimes exaggerates some small problems which occur normally with any airline and describe it as a huge problem,” Kreebani said during the media tour on Wednesday, Kuwait Times reported.